Red meat good, red meat bad...

We know that doctors' advice on what you can and cannot eat is getting increasingly fragmented but, really, to have two totally conflicting reports on the health consequences of eating red meat in less than a week is hopeless!

However, when we look into the study by the British Nutrition Foundation which found "no evidence of negative health risks" we find that they are, in fact, funded by the food industry. The World Cancer Research Fund disputed the findings and said there is strong evidence that too much red meat can increase the likelihood of colon cancer. Two days ago the Department of Helath issued a guideline saying no-one should eat more than 500g of red meat a week. I'm not sure what the WCRF would think of the 32 oz steak Triple P had in a restaurant in Calgary a few years ago!

However, all of these bodies have a vested interest in continuing what Triple P's friend HMS calls the "medicalisation of food".

So who do you believe? Can any of these tests really give definitive answers? We don't think so, as they try to isolate one factor and there are so many other factors relating to diet, lifestyle and genetics in play. What happens if you eat red meat but also lots of tomatoes, which are said to prevent cancer?

It's all hopeless, really. What the governmnent really needs to address is the hormones and other foreign substances put into our meat.

As for Triple P, he really doesn't eat much red meat at home but does like a nice bleu steak when dining out, such as the one we had in the Arizona Biltmore Hotel last time we were there (pictured). This was a rare (far too cooked for Triple P!) occasion where we have actually managed to get a steak cooked the way we like it in America; i.e. hardly cooked at all. Triple P actually had to sign a disclaimer when he asked for a bleu steak in a restaurant in Las Vegas once!